Is there a movement other than the movement of thought?
Public Talk 1
What is the operation of thought?
Public Talk 1 Saanen
July 14, 1974
In the world around us and inside us, is there a relationship between the inner and the outer? Are you free to listen or do you listen with interpretation and prejudices? Do I observe the content of my consciousness as an outsider? Can one observe the content without choice? If you look with eyes that are divided is there not conflict between you and another? Is division between the observer and the observed? Is it intelligent for thought to create and maintain division while talking about peace? Is there an intelligence which is not cunning and is not the function or result of thought? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 2
Is there energy not based on idea or ideology?
Public Talk 2 Saanen
July 16, 1974
Why is thought divisive? The desire to change in a particular direction gives an energy that is divisive. Will you free the mind taking time, through analysis, or can you look totally and therefore be totally free? Does choiceless rejection of the false give a different kind of energy? Does a foundation give me direction or does it bring confusion? Is the operation of intelligence insight? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 3
Can thought bring order?
Public Talk 3 Saanen
July 18, 1974
Are thoughts, feelings, reactions and relationships merely mechanical? Is there any other movement? Where there is a cause there is time and so living becomes relative. Is my relationship with another based on opinions, memories, demands and sexual appetites? Is there a way of living which has no cause? Do I actually see disorder or only its description? Is it only when the ‘me’ is non-existent that I am related? What takes place when the mind has order and a sense of total relationship? Can the mind be free of the word to look and discover its disorder? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 4
Can the mind not be a slave to knowledge?
Public Talk 4 Saanen
July 21, 1974
When consciousness invents a super-consciousness is it a part of thought aware of the past? Is there a part of the brain which has not been touched by the known? Is it our education to escape from ‘what is’ through ideals? Has the mind been trained to operate and function in the field of the known? Observing the movement of thought and its source, can one come upon something beyond thought? Is time required to see the reality and non-reality of knowledge? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 5
Wisdom comes through the understanding of suffering
Public Talk 5 Saanen
July 23, 1974
Do we respond to the whole field of existence? Must not there be love to do that? To love, to be responsible for the whole, one must go beyond suffering. Can we know the nature, structure and function of suffering? Is isolation one of the major causes of suffering? Is attachment, which denies freedom, a cause of suffering? In the love of the whole the particular comes in, but not the other way around. Can we be sensitive to beauty if we are psychologically hurt? Can the mind be aware of hurt and not react at the conscious or unconscious level? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 6
Are you seeking security in a concept?
Public Talk 6 Saanen
July 25, 1974
Love and compassion is denied totally when you seek security in neurotic concepts. Is there permanent security in relationship? The mind is sane, healthy, whole and acts totally when it realizes there is nothing permanent. What is the relationship of time to thought? Does the mind need time to transform itself? What is your relationship to death? Is it romantic or is it a total relationship? Knowing nothing about an unconditioned mind, can you look at conditioning without the movement of its opposite? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 7
Meditation is to discover an area in which there is no movement of thought
Public Talk 7 Saanen
July 28, 1974
Has the world and its thought-based activity bred fear? Can hidden fears and subtle forms of pleasure be exposed through analysis? What is a mind to do when it sees the falseness of analysis and introspective examination? Is the controller different in nature from what he says he is going to control? Can the mind empty itself of time, direction and movement, which is the ending of thought? What place has knowledge in meditation? Can thought and meditation live together harmoniously in daily action? Is the speaker teaching you higher knowledge? All the speaker is saying is: watch yourself. Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Discussion 1
Thought is not the instrument of change
Public Discussion 1 Saanen
July 31, 1974
Q: How is thought to end completely? All cultures have given importance to thought. Is there another instrument besides thought? Can thought be silent when the mind is observing? My concern is to observe and this is prevented when there is any movement or flutter of thought. Attention is given totally and thought does not enter into it. Can I look without thought? Observe the world, nature, everything, including your own desires without a single movement of thought.
Public Discussion 2
Why is the mind attached?
Public Discussion 2 Saanen
August 01, 1974
Q: Why is it so difficult to be free from attachment? Why is the mind attached to an ideal, a nationality, a person, experience, opinions and gods? Why does the mind cripple itself with attachments? Is attachment a living thing that is going on or is it a remembrance of the past? If attachment is a continuation of the past, what is relationship between two people? Tomorrow is what has been yesterday, modified. You are living in the past and there is conflict with the present. To end conflict at the very roots of your being, to realize there is no tomorrow, your whole action changes. Every day is an ending of everything.
Public Discussion 3
What is our responsibility?
Public Discussion 3 Saanen
August 02, 1974
Q: How do I put the feeling of responsibility into action? We approach a problem from the outer to the inner and the inner to the outer. It is an endless ebb and flow. Who has created the division, this structure as the outer and the inner? We are educated in that and are caught in it. Division takes place when there is an image in the mind. Responsibility is to free yourself of images absolutely. When you feel responsibility, the flame of it will burn the image. Seeing the world as it is and ourselves as we are, responsibility begins to awaken.
Public Discussion 4
What is the relationship between attention and lack of attention?
Public Discussion 4 Saanen
August 03, 1974
We are educated to follow, accept and conform. This is tradition, second-hand. When you become aware of conformity without reaction is that awareness the act of intelligence? Does the mind realize the nature of conformity, intelligence and awareness? I am attentive for a minute and there is no border, no time, no ‘me’, no problem. The whole energy is involved in that attention. This is a tremendous movement. Attending, I can do things without effort and thought. The mind gets tired and moves to inattention. In that state of inattention action goes on and must be conditioning. There is attention the moment the mind is aware that it is inattentive.
Public Discussion 5
What is a chaste mind?
Public Discussion 5 Saanen
August 04, 1974
The word ‘chaste’ means pure, clean, untouched. Have we a chaste mind, a mind that has not been hurt, has no image, is free from the pleasure of yesterday and is innocent? Is chastity a quality of the mind? Can the mind be free of the word, symbols and the condemnation and approval of the word? What is the nature of the mind when there is no attempt through will or desire for any way out through the known? If you are really serious, not just with words but burning with responsibility, then you ask whether the mind can ever be free from the known.